Hard to believe it has been a month since we all got together and celebrated our community and picked up our bag of Community Controlled Food Initiative (CCFI) produce. This month is another great collection of food from local farmers. Before we get into the bounty that summer is offering us through these great farmers there are a couple housekeeping …
Gentrifying Indy: A Close Look at the Numbers
By WildStyle – Keith R. Paschall II According to a study commissioned by LISC Indy, 5 census tracts have experienced displacement causing the percentage of African-Americans to drop some significantly in several neighborhoods. The study done by the Center for Community Progress shows the Near Eastside neighborhoods of Cottage Home and Holy Cross experienced a 56% decline in their African-American …
Police Reform Revisited?
“A reform that begins with the officer on the beat is not reform at all. It’s avoidance. It’s a continuance of the American preference for considering the actions of bad individuals, as opposed to the function and intention of systems.” – Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Myth of Police Reform. On July 14th, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced his plan to bring …
July 2017 CCFI Food Shares and Recipes
Tomorrow is the monthly Community Controlled Food Initiative (CCFI) food pick up and Good Food Feast. We will be gathering at Kheprw Institute, on July 8th from 3-5pm, as we do every Second Saturday of the month – sharing food and building our community program. Usually, you don’t find out what is in your bag of goodies until you arrive, but we are …
From Indy Community Innovation Lab Emerges “New Music”
What is the Community Innovation Lab and why is KI involved? The lab will bring divergent voices across sectors together periodically over the next 18 months to dig deeper around a specific community issue. The lab is a collaborative effort between EmcArts – a nonprofit art consulting organization based in New York – and local conveners: Spirit & Place, Groundwork …
Gentrification by Flood: Welcome to “New” New Orleans
When I was a little girl, we moved to northern Indiana from New Mexico. New Mexico didn’t have hurricanes. Indiana, on the other hand, had a lot of tornado… threats. The nightly news would track the storm. When it escalated to Tornado Warning, I’d haul all my stuffed animals to the basement. Had to save them. I had quite an imagination. …
Losers and Winners of IPS School Closings
In April, 2017 IPS announced the possible closing of 3 High Schools. An open community meeting to discuss the issue, not sponsored by IPS, will be held on June 5th at 6 pm at the Purpose of Life Ministries at 3705 W Kessler Blvd North Drive, at the corner of 38th and Kessler. This meeting is sponsored by Concerned Clergy, …
Get Ready for eSTEAM!
Summer in the near northwest side community is marked by the scents of charcoal and fresh cut grass, screams and laughs from children freshly out of school, and beads of sweat from the intense heat. These simple staples of summer passed me by on my daily route to and from the Kheprw Institute’s eSTEAM camp last summer, where eager children …
Reflections on How to Kill a City by Peter Moskowitz| Part I
In his opening remarks, Peter Moskowitz lays out an utopian village where urban living allows everyone to thrive. He then plunges deep into the causes of its collapse. Raised in the West Village of New York City, the neighborhood bears little resemblance to the streets he called home as a child. Yet, this very community was once heralded as an …
Voyage Along the Horizon Between the United States and Brazil
I arrived in Salvador a 21-year old black male, raised by the Indianapolis community that created me, to embark on a journey to discover lessons from another chapter of the African Diaspora. I arrived with a backpack of journals and cameras and a large duffle bag filled with clothes inappropriate for the tropical weather. I was drenched in sweat within …